Developer-builder tapped for Planning Commission spot

The Park City Council recently appointed a developer-builder who lives in Park Meadows to the Planning Commission, completing a shake-up that started late in 2013.

Clay Stuard, a 24-year Park City resident, will serve the remainder of a term expiring in July. Mick Savage held the position but left the Planning Commission prior to the end of the term. Stuard would need to reapply for a full four-year term.

In his application for the position, Stuard said he has 35 years of experience in planning issues as a developer-builder and as what he describes as a citizen advocate. He said in the application he has knowledge of planning concepts and planning documents like a general plan and a land management code.

The application said he served on planning-related committees in the 1990s, such as a citizen advisory committee involved in City Hall’s General Plan and a committee that studied view corridors, ridgelines and lands deemed to be sensitive in planning processes.

In response to an application question about issues of importance, Stuard said diversity is crucial to Park City.

"Economic and social diversity can be maintained through thoughtful planning, a limited quantity but wide range of appropriately designed and sited housing, regulatory encouragement of small vs. large scale businesses, and connecting out commercial, resort, residential and public spaces with pedestrian/bicycle friendly facilities," he said in the application.

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Stuard also mentioned the importance of a "physically distinct community, largely surrounded by an open space buffer, unobstructed ridgelines and view corridors, and not allowing the man-made improvements to dominate the natural landscape and environment."

Stuard, meanwhile, also said City Hall’s growth documents — the General Plan and the Land Management Code — "need to be updated to reflect the values of our community and to provide a coordinated vision, set of goals, policies and regulations consistent with those values."

Stuard joins a Planning Commission lacking the experience of those in the past. Stuard is one of four members appointed in recent months. They make up a majority of the seven-person panel. The other relative newcomers are Steve Joyce, Preston Campbell and John Phillips.

Two other people initially filed applications for the Planning Commission position. Alex Butwinski, a former City Councilor who lost his re-election bid in November, withdrew his application prior to the selection. Sara Werbelow, a figure in the GreenPark Cohousing, LLC development in Old Town, also sought the spot.